Wednesday, May 30, 2012

sir duke

Stevie Wonder spoke a language we all understand with this triumphant horn-driven tribute to Duke Ellington. Wonder wrote 'Sir Duke' after the death of his idol Duke Ellington in 1974. He says: "I knew the title from the beginning but wanted it to be about the musicians who did something for us. So soon they are forgotten. I wanted to show my appreciation." He also pays tribute to Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. The recording features Wonder on keyboards, Michael Sembello on lead guitar, Ben Bridges on rhythm guitar, Nathan Watts on bass, Raymond Pounds on drums, Hank Redd on alto saxophone, Trevor Laurence on tenor saxophone, and Raymond Maldonado and Steve Madaio on trumpet.

Sembello recalls: “We would show up to the studio at one or two o’clock in the morning. And like I said before, Steve is tireless. When he gets in the zone, he stays in the zone. Steve would show up and we would have everything set up ready to play. He would literally be writing another song while we would be tracking one song. We had two engineers in the studio at all times. We would be tracking a song and Steve would yell, ‘Hold on! Wait a minute! Roll the tape!’ He would start singing something that was coming to him and due to the fact that we were musicians and had great ears we started playing alongside him. All of a sudden a new song started to form and this is how the song ‘Sir Duke’ came about. There are probably hundreds or even thousands of songs in the vault from Steve that have just come from the top of his head that he has never finished. He could have material playing a hundred years from now. He was the conductor of the universe. We were a musical force due to him. It was very magical. We wanted to get better as musicians. We didn’t care about getting Grammy’s. We wanted to be the best we could be.”

Watts remembers: “On ‘Sir Duke’ Steve was humming the melody of it one day and he didn’t have the words to the song yet. By the time all of us were in the studio, the band was ready to do the song. I think we finished the song in two takes because we rehearsed the song enough to have it so Stevie didn’t have to worry about it. There was one thing he might have changed later after the recording, but what you hear on the album is what we cut in the studio. Wonderlove was an incredible band back then and incredible influence on him as well. He had some of the baddest players around in that band. I had only been playing the guitar for two years, but I had a quick ear to pick up stuff and that made the difference. I must have had a little talent, I guess that’s why he kept me."

'Sir Duke' was the third of five singles from his double-album magnum opus 'Songs in the Key of Life'and his second consecutive number one on both the pop and R&B charts after 'I Wish'. It was also the last of nine consecutive top three R&B hits, seven of them number ones. 'Sir Duke' also went to number two in the UK.